Vanessa is a sought-after and highly accomplished trial lawyer and strategist who achieves successful results in high-stakes business and IP litigations for clients in the technology, life sciences, pharmaceutical, and chemical sectors. Her practice encompasses complex patent litigations and disputes, Hatch-Waxman and biosimilar matters, IPRs, licensing controversies and arbitrations, strategic IP assessment, and IP counseling.
As a skilled litigator who has never lost a trial on behalf of her clients, Vanessa handles patent trials before US district courts, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. She has also been counsel of record when submitting amicus briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of world-leading academic research institutions.
With significant experience and success representing clients for their blockbuster products with multibillion dollars in sales, Vanessa's cases have spanned technologies in a wide range of areas, including cancer treatments, gene therapies, HIV/AIDS, cosmetic and dermatologic conditions, FemTech (technologies for women's health), prostate disorders, molecular cloning, musculoskeletal disorders, autoimmune and neurological disorders, Wi-Fi photo frames, and printing technology.
Vanessa works with Fortune 500 and 1000 companies, start-ups, and world-leading academic research institutions, including Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Servier Pharmaceuticals, GW Pharmaceuticals, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Sword Health, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Galderma, AstraZeneca, Gilead Sciences, Novartis, Shire LLC (now Takeda Pharmaceutical Company), Supernus Pharmaceuticals, UCB, Celltech (now part of USB), Eisai Co., Canon USA, Netgear, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Temple Health, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
Vanessa has been named a "Top 100 Women Leader of New York" by Women We Admire and a "US Rising Star in Intellectual Property" by LMG Life Sciences. IAM Patent 1000 identified Vanessa as a leading practitioner and lauded her "exceptional skill sets and profound insights into patent matters" while "maintaining clear strategic vision." The Financial Times commended one of Vanessa's cases as a "Top Litigation Dispute" of 2019, and LMG Life Sciences named the successful result of another of her cases as "The Hatch-Waxman Impact Case of the Year" in 2019.
Prior to joining Mintz, Vanessa was a partner in the Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark and Copyright Litigation group at a global law firm. Vanessa also co-chaired the firm’s Asian Affinity Diversity Committee.
Vanessa graduated from MIT and Cornell Law. Prior to law, Vanessa conducted years of breast cancer research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories and worked on the Human Genome Project at MIT. At MIT, she was admitted to the Sigma Xi honor society.
Experience
- Represented Alexion Pharmaceuticals in several patent litigation disputes before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board involving Soliris®, a multibillion-dollar biologic product.
- Represented Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in connection with a patent litigation involving CAR-T–related biotech for cancer immunotherapy, as well as BMS's other cancer therapies.
- Represented Galderma in several patent litigations and IPRs involving Oracea®, a product for rosacea with over a billion dollars in sales.
- Represented GW Pharma / Jazz Pharma in a complex international litigation and arbitration contract dispute concerning a patent licensing agreement, which involved Epidiolex®, a cannabidiol for Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS).
- Represented Sword Health in a patent dispute involving digital musculoskeletal therapy.
- Represented Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a patent litigation involving Brovana®, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug product.
- Represented Shire LLC and Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in a patent litigation involving Intuniv®, a treatment for ADHD.
- Represented Eisai Co., Ltd. in a patent litigation involving Banzel®, an antiepileptic drug product.
- Represented AstraZeneca in a patent litigation involving Seroquel®, an antipsychotic drug product.
- Represented Gilead Sciences in a patent litigation involving Truvada®, an anti-HIV-1 drug product.
- Represented Novartis Pharmaceuticals in a patent litigation involving Trileptal®, a product for the treatment of partial seizures.
- Represented UCB and Celltech Pharmaceuticals in a patent litigation involving Metadate CD®, an ADHD drug product.
News & Press
Mintz Announces Record Member Growth in 2023
December 22, 2023
Mintz Bolsters IP And Finance Benches With Two New Partners
September 27, 2023
Mintz Life Sciences Practice Boosted By Addition Of IP Litigator
September 25, 2023
Events & Speaking
Holistic Litigation Strategies for Strengthening or Defeating a Written Description Invalidity Defense
American Conference Institute’s 17th Annual Paragraph IV Conference
New York, NY
Managing Diverse IP Teams
American Conference Institute’s 16th Annual Paragraph IV Conference
New York, NY
Publications
- Co-author, “Purple Book Patent Listing Under Biological Product Patent Transparency Act: What is Required and What to Expect?” Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal (September 2021)
- Co-author, “Challenging Therapeutics IP After Fed. Circ. Drink Can Ruling,” Law 360 (February 2021)
- Co-author, “The Federal Circuit’s Ball Metal Decision Raises Important Considerations for Pharma and Biologics Patents,” JDSupra (January 2021)
- Co-author, “Federal Circuit Continues Trend of Finding Diagnostic Inventions to be Patent-Ineligible,” Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, (February 2020)
Recognition & Awards
Women We Admire, Top 100 Women Leaders of New York (2022 & 2023)
LMG Life Sciences, US Rising Star in Intellectual Property (2021)
IAM Patent 1000: World's Leading Patent Professionals – Top Patent Professional (2019 – 2021)
Recognized by the Financial Times for handling one of the Top Litigation Disputes of 2019
Recognized by LMG Life Sciences for a patent litigation victory in the Hatch-Waxman Impact Case of the Year (2019)
New York Super Lawyers: Intellectual Property Litigation (2014 – 2019)
New York Super Lawyers: Rising Star – Intellectual Property Litigation (2014 – 2019)
New York Super Lawyers: Top Women Attorneys in New York Metro (2014 – 2018)
Involvement
- Appointed Member, Amicus Briefing Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO)
- National Association of Women Lawyers
- Chiefs in Intellectual Property (ChIPs)
- National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
- Asian American Bar Association of New York
- Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley
- Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Board Member, Cornell Law School Alumni Executive Board of
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